The Aftermath (Post Infinity War)
by YouDidn'tSeeThatComing616
Summary: Half the world is gone. Tony and Nebula are trapped in space and everybody? Everybody has lost something, some more so than others. Basically a story of The Avengers meeting each other after 3 years. (Spoilers for Infinity War, obviously)


Tony looked around, the shock setting in. 'No, no, no. This can't be happening. It's just another nightmare. Any second now you'll wake up back in New York with Pepper.' But that was the worst part. Deep down, Tony knew this wasn't a dream and he couldn't help but blame himself for Peter's death.

Oh Peter. Why did Tony drag him into this? Peter was young. Too young to be worrying about dying while fighting a mad titan. Too pure for war. For death.

Tony ran his hand over his face, a shaky breath leaving his breath. His mind, like always, ordering everything in a logical pattern. Sorting out stuff he did know, and what he didn't know. Making plans for what to do next. But even that didn't distract him from the pile of dust that once upon a time was a young, innocent boy.

"Hello? Stark?" A voice pulled him out of his train of thoughts. Tony was too shaken to recognize the voice and sharply turned to face Nebula. "I've been calling for you, you're not listening. What are we going to do now? I don't know if you've noticed, but we're still stuck on a planet."

"What?" Stark mumbled as he repeated the words in his head. "Oh yes. We have to get back to Earth." Tony wouldn't allow himself to fall into despair or guilt right now. He had to clear his mind and figure out how to get back. "One of these spaceships must be working, and I reckon you know how to fly one? I have friends back at Earth who could help us, or at least tell us what the hell is going on."

"Isn't it clear." Nebula's voice was controlled anger. "He wiped out half the universe. Just like that." Nebula snapped her fingers.

"Shit. Fuck." Was Tony's only thought as reality sank in. "Oh, great."

"Let's stop standing here and look for a functioning spaceship." Nebula ordered.

"It should take us approximately an hour and half to go to Terra. I won't have enough fuel to get back to my planet, but I don't have anywhere to go. You'll have to help me on that." Nebula spoke.

"Mm-hmm." Tony nodded. Barely listening. All he could think about was Peter. Peter's voice kept on replaying in his head. "I don't feel so good Mr. Stark." Tony remembered how hard Peter had tried to keep his tears in. To try to be the fearless hero Tony knew Peter was. "I don't wanna go. I don't wanna go." Tony could still feel where he hugged the kid. _His_ kid. The emptiness felt agonizing. "I'm sorry." Peter faded away into dust.

Tony's suit had broken down, but he managed to sculpt the metal into something akin of a jar, while roughly patching up his suit from some materials found in the ship. He had gathered up the only mark Peter had left into the jar and kept holding it the whole ride back.

Suddenly a thought jolted Tony out of the memory that had taken place merely an hour ago. " _Half_ of the population died, right?" Tony asked Nebula for confirmation.

"Yes. How hard is the concept to grasp?" Nebula remarked, though it didn't have that much bite in it.

' _Fuckfuckfuckfuckfuckfuckfuckfuck. Is Pepper alright? What about Rhodey? What happened to the rest of the Avengers? 3.5 billion of the world gone. How will we all function? What about the people in power? What's going to happen if the president is dead. I hope the others are alright. They probably went against Thanos. I'll have to find them. I'll also have to ask Jarv-Friday to make a list of people that I know who died. SHIT. There are so many people who could have died. Who's to say I couldn't have died. I should have died in place of Peter. He… he didn't deserve to die. He only wanted to help people.'_

Vaguely, Tony was aware his breathing was becoming irregular and speeding up. He couldn't afford to have a panic attack right now, so he tried to occupy his mind. "I'm gonna go check how this spaceship works. The engine and all." Tony informed Nebula, who pretended she didn't notice Tony's 'scene'.

45 minutes later, the genius had roughly figured out how the spaceship operated. "How long 'till we get to Earth?"

"I'd say about 30 minutes. Where exactly on Terra do you want to land on?" Nebula asked.

"Go to New York, Upstate. I have a facility there where you can land this." Tony said.

"What about me? I have nowhere to go." Nebula inquired.

"Quill said that the raccoon and tree went with Thor. Presumably, they're at Earth, with the others. Hopefully, they're not dead. You guys can stay with us until we find a way to fix this." Tony explained.

"You'll have to point me in the right direction when I get to New York. And the invisibility function isn't working on this, so most likely we'll be seen. I've heard Terra isn't technologically advanced enough to have spaceships yet." Nebula stated.

Tony huffed. "Oh please. Earth has amazing technology because of me. And besides, everybody would be too distraught over _half of the population DYING_ , that they wouldn't care about the small spaceship flying over." Tony sounded a bit hysterical on the last line. He clearly hadn't digested it all.

Tony started pacing around the spaceship, distractedly looking over some stuff on his phone. It was a miracle that the phone had survived, but after all the phone was made by himself. Stark considered it one of his better creation. It was one of a kind. The phone could turn into a gun, which, unknown to most people, Stark knew how to operate. Tony might go as far to say that he was actually pretty good with one. After all, one must know how to use a gun and aim it, to built advance ones.

The phone could also transform into a few other things; extra precautions taken for Tony and his friends. Tony had given a similar phone to Pepper and Rhodey, with one in the making for Peter. The phone took quite some time to perfect, and Tony had built it all to the tiniest detail himself. Tony only trusted himself to make the best for his friends.

The phone could track wherever Pepper and Rhodey's phones were, even out in space. There was unlimited range if Tony wanted to call Pepper or Rhodey, but after trying multiple times and it going straight to voicemail, Tony, albeit worried, gave up.

He knew Pepper was at the Stark Industries building, probably working before the attack happened. And Rhodey was in Wakanda, or his phone was at least.

Tony couldn't head straight to Wakanda, he had an image to protect. He needed a functional suit, just in case, and needed to clear his mind and clean up to look more presentable. He closed his eyes for a few seconds before putting up a mask on his face; a facade merely used to fool everybody, including the press. A fake grin was painted on as his body posture relaxed, showing that he didn't have a care in the world.

"Where to?" Nebula asked, not questioning the sudden change in Stark, although confused.

Tony walked up to the co-pilot seat and analyzed the ground below, trying to figure out where he was. "Wait a second." He was close enough to earth, maps should work. "Here." Tony opened a holographic representation of the route they were supposed to take. Good thing he added flying routes to it because of the quinjets.

Within a few minutes, thanks to the speed of the ship, the facility was in site. "Is there a speaker or something I can talk into, cause we'll get shot down, thanks to the awesome lasers I made, if an unauthorized ship enters the perimeter. My A.I. will recognize my voice."

Wordlessly, Nebula handed Stark a device and pointed to a button. "Guess who's back, baby!" Tony pressed the button and talked into it. A landing pad opened on the roof and Nebula landed on it. The ship went down into the basement as the roof closed above them. The facility was devoid of people and seemed incredibly vacant. "Home, sweet, home."

"We'll have to use one of your ships instead, since the one we stole is running low on fuel." Nebula stated as she looked around, analyzing every single detail.

"Problem is, we seem to be out of pilots, I haven't connected Friday yet to it, and unless you feel like dying, you don't want me to pilot it." Tony mused.

"Oh please, I could probably figure it out in two seconds flat." Nebula remarked.

"Friday will point you to the guest rooms, there are clothes in the closet and you can take a shower, if aliens still take showers. We'll be leaving in less then an hour." Tony nodded before walking off to his own bedroom.

As Tony closed the door behind him, his armor seemed to drop. "Oh god, what have I done?" He was reminded of Peter again when he placed the jar on his bedside. He would have to come up with a better place to put the dirt. "He isn't dirt." A voice at the back of Tony's head said,

"Sir, if I may, you need to get ready." Friday reminded Tony.

Tony chose his outfit and went into the shower. Taking one of the quickest showers he had ever taken, he headed to his lab.

"Friday, what is Nebula doing right now?" Tony asked.

"She is still taking a shower, sir." Friday replied.

Okay, so Tony still had some time. He adjusted the new arc reactor in his chest, he didn't know when he would need his suit. "Let's get down to business, shall we?"

Taking in a shaky breath, Tony checked the list of people that had been part of the population that died. Friday didn't have access to Wakanda, so Tony didn't know about the Avengers. And he didn't have enough time to hack into their cameras when he was going there anyway.

Pepper was still alive! Tony felt a warm glow in his chest not caused by the arc reactor. But Happy was dead. Aah, shit. He had quite liked the guy. Happy was one of the few people he actually trusted, after Rhodey, Pepper, Peter, and Jarvis. Though Jarvis was dead now, and what was left was Vision. Tony hadn't properly adjusted to Friday.

"Nebula is requesting permission to enter the lab." Friday informed Tony.

"Let her in, and Friday, send the list to my phone." He commanded.

"Of course, sir." Friday replied.

"Huh." Nebula muttered. "Maybe Terra isn't so far behind on technology after all."

Tony heard Nebula. "This? This is nothing."

"If you don't mind, I would like to get going." Nebula said with a pointed glance.

"Friday, which one of the ships would be of best use right now?" Tony asked, still scrolling through the list. Friday had put everyone Tony knew in the list, and damn was that a lot of people.

"I would suggest using the Aircraft 26, the one you were recently working on. While it is small, it is one of the quicker ones and is more advanced than the other ships you've made. If it is required, I can later send a bigger ship over to Wakanda to pick up the other Avengers." Friday's smooth voice replied.

"Prepare it." Tony ordered as he closed all the holograms with a swipe of his hand. "Do you want anything?" At Nebula's head shake, Tony picked up a sleek gun. "Here." He offered. "Take this, just in case. It's the newest model I made and has extra ammunition inside it. Move this to change the bullet type and hold that back to turn the safety off."

"We're off to see the wizard, the wonderful wizard of Oz." Tony sang under his breath, walking through the empty hallways, trying to calm his nerves. It had been three years since he has seen Rogers. Three years since Rogers had put a shield through his heart, quite literally too. What was going to happen? Tony could almost feel the ticking of a bomb under his skin, an explosion was sure to happen.


End file.
